Years Ago

Today is Friday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2013. There are 312 days left in the year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

On this date in:

1732: The first president of the United States, George Washington, is born in Westmoreland County in the Virginia Colony.

1784: A U.S. merchant ship, the Empress of China, leaves New York for the Far East to trade goods with China.

1862: Jefferson Davis, already the provisional president of the Confederacy, is inaugurated for a six-year term following his election in November 1861.

1865: Tennessee adopts a new constitution which includes the abolition of slavery.

1909: The Great White Fleet, a naval task force sent on a round-the-world voyage by President Theodore Roosevelt, returns after more than a year at sea.

VINDICATOR FILES

1988: James W. Cossler, 33, president and general manager of the Better Business Bureau of the Mahoning Valley, says he was born in Youngstown and intends to die in Youngstown, but says too many people complain about the city but don’t do anything to improve it.

Bargain World discount store will open in downtown Salem in the former G.C. Murphy store building and will feature variety items, with none exceeding $20 in price.

1973: William T. Owens, 47, of Poland, a village street department employee, is killed by the falling bed of a slag truck that had stuck in the up position and came down suddenly while he was trying to free it.

The FBI charges a 22-year-old Louisiana woman with attempted murder for abandoning her newborn girl in the toilet of a United Airlines plane at Youngstown Municipal Airport.

Youngstown City Council approves 7.5 percent pay raises for city safety services, avoiding a threat of the “blue flu.”

1963: Youngstown steel operations move up about three points to 54 percent of capacity, meaning hundreds of workers will be recalled.

General Fireproofing Co. is awarded a $5 million contract by the General Services Administration, U.S. Rep. Michael J. Kirwan announces.

1938: Three Youngstown men who hopped a freight train from Washington to Philadelphia where they hoped to find work are recovering from exposure after being locked in a refrigerator car and nearly freezing to death. They are Charles Glegdora, 20; Frank Kreich, 20, and Charles Patko, 19.